[@Crusader Lord]
Aww, there's no need to feel intimidated by the number of people showing interest. Once the OOC is done, there'll only be 5 slots open regardless of how many people apply.

[@Valkon]

To answer the first question:
The only possible "curse" or "corruption" regarding a person's with-born skills that can exist or apply is that they either forget what their skills do, or the skills' effects become unclear/unknown. Things like completely changing what they do or how they work is however not something that's possible.

As for the second question.
The Six Nations have lesser nations within them, either as allies or vassal states. However, because the Greater Nations could easily trample these minor countries/states if they wanted, people just simply say they're from one of the larger nations when asked where they're from. Your nation/city-state could exist, but not as a wohlly independant location. It could have been granted autonomous rule or self-goverment by whichever larger country it lies within, but it wouldn't be allowed to remain "truly free".

There are many reasons for this, but the most obvious one is that there simply is no unexplored surface areas of the continent in which this story takes place. The existence of magic and the fact that your country sent people out and away from its own borders to train are also all elements which would've made it known to the outside. The fact that it also had rich mines would make it even more of a target of subjugation and inclusion to one of the Greater Nations.

Hopefully that answers your questions.